With Flowers in Her Hair
by maryqueenofscots
Summary: Mary Stuart is starting her freshman year of college. She is certainly prepared for the academic challenges. But what she isn't prepared for is her childhood love coming back into her life and bringing his mysterious, intriguing older brother with him. Modern!College!AU. Mary/Francis. Mary/Bash.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Well, it's been a long time since I've written fanfiction but Reign has just awakened something in me! This is a modern!AU, taking place in the current year, with neither Mary nor Francis being royalty. It also takes place in the United States. Hopefully none of this puts you off! The prologue is written in present tense but I'm not sure the rest of the chapters will be? Let me know how you feel about the tense in a review! Also, while this story is very much starting out as Francis/Mary, Bash/Mary will be a central focus. With all of that being said, I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Reign, Georgetown, or these characters. I'm just playing around with them in a different world.**

The first memory she has is of Francis. They're playing in the backyard and he comes up to her, dandelion in hand. He puts it behind her ear and says, "There." It's all he says but it's all Mary needs to hear. She leans over and kisses him on the cheek before running away and telling him, "Catch me if you can!"

He does, catch her, that is. Every time. They play tag in the backyard together every day after school. Francis is always it and Mary always lets him win. She likes how he grabs her at the waist to take her down. She loves Francis, he is the best friend she has ever had.

She is 8 when her father dies. He passes suddenly and it's a shock to Mary's system. She doesn't know what to do or how to handle this. So she goes to Francis and for once they don't play tag. They sit on the porch swing in the backyard. They are sat next to each other, Mary starting straight ahead and Francis staring at Mary. Tears are silently streaming down her face but she can't feel them. She can't feel anything. She feels paralyzed. She can't even find the strength to wipe the tears off her face. Francis stays still for a long time. Then, he reaches over and grabs her hand. He smiles gently at her when she jumps in surprise. She doesn't smile back but he expected that. It's enough that she didn't flinch away from him. They sit outside, on that swing, hands intertwined until after sundown. It starts to get cold and the wind begins to blow, but neither Francis nor Mary move. Mary hasn't said a word and Francis doesn't know what he could possibly say so he keeps quiet too. The porch swing moves with the wind. Mary stops it with her feet. "I'm scared." She whispers, so low that Francis can barely hear her. He simply nods and they continue to sit.

The porch swing becomes their new tag. They sit there every single day until the snow begins to fall. It's Christmas break when Mary's mother tells her that they're moving. To some state far away. All Mary can hear is "We're moving away from Francis, the only person you care about." She resists. She protests. She cries. But her mother won't hear any of it. She simply wipes at her tired eyes and says, "We're going, Mary. You can yell, cry, and scream all you want." And she walks away, leaving Mary alone in the kitchen.

The last day they spend in Fredericksburg, Mary spends with Francis. They sit in his living room, legs crossed and knees pressed against each other. They aren't saying very much at all. Mary takes a glance at the clock. 3:00pm. Only one more hour until she leaves Fredericksburg, and Francis, behind. So she puts a hand on Francis's knee and says, "I promise I won't forget you." Francis grins at her.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did." She smiles sadly. She keeps her hand on his knee. She is looking down at the floor when a hand comes up under her chin and lifts her head up. Suddenly, she is looking directly into Francis's eyes. He blinks a few times before a look of determination takes over his face. Before Mary can even realize what's going on, Francis is leaning in. His mouth is on hers, only for a moment, before he pulls away. Mary is shell-shocked and Francis is blushing. "I won't forget you either." Is all he says.

* * *

Mary leaves shortly after that. Francis is standing at the edge of his driveway, waving. Mary waves back until he is out of sight.

Mary keeps her promise to him. She never forgets him. Years pass but every day she thinks of the best friend she left behind. She wonders what sort of trouble he is getting into with his older half-brother, Sebastian. The two had never been close because Mary had always taken up nearly all of Francis's time.

Birthday's pass and every year, when Mary is blowing out the candles, she wishes to find Francis again.

With each passing year, the image of Francis that Mary has ingrained her mind fades just a little bit more. She has no photographs to remind her of what he looked like. Her mother had gotten rid of all of those before the move in an attempt to cut all ties with their former home. Mary tries desperately to hang onto the last memories that she has of him. Eventually though details of his face begin to fade from memory. She forgets the exact color of his eyes and which hand he writes with. What she doesn't forget though is how his kiss made her feel. Maybe it was silly to be holding onto a childhood love the way she was but she promised him that she would never forget him and she has no intentions of ever breaking that promise.

The years go quickly, high school being a blur of work and friends, and before Mary knows it she's graduated and heading off to college. The application process was tedious but Mary gets into many of the schools she applies to. It took her nearly a month to decide where she wanted to go but in the end she went with her heart: Georgetown University. Only one hour away from her hometown of Fredericksburg. Only an hour away from Francis.

Her mother fights her tooth and nail on her choice but Mary stands by it. She's nearly 18 now and the decision is hers to make. In the end, her mother relents and stops fighting her.

She arrives at Georgetown University on August 22nd, 2013. It has been nearly 8 years since Mary had seen Francis in the flesh.

It takes approximately 3 hours for her to see him again.


	2. Chapter One

**A/N: WOW. I'm absolutely overwhelmed and humbled by the response the prologue got. I'm so amazed. I'm glad that you all gave this a chance despite it being really, really AU. I've gotten a few inquiries about the ships in this fic. I'd like to address that! As of right now, the endgame is looking like Mabastian. HOWEVER, it's very possible that could change so don't hold me to that! As of this point in the fic though, the only established ship is Frary and I'm very much enjoying writing them. So I would love if you kept reading! I hope you enjoy (: (p.s. In case you want to follow me, my tumblr is mstuartss!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Reign, Georgetown, or these characters. I'm just playing around with them! **

Moving sucked. The repeated up and down had worn both Mary and her mother out. She was _exhausted_. They had been working for the better part of three hours. Turns out, Mary should have heeded her Mother's warning _not_ to overpack. 10 separate trips up the stairs and a lot of complaining later, all of her boxes had made it safely through the doors and were now strewn about her side of the room. "I'm starved. Can we find something to eat before we unpack?" Mary asked, wiping a bead off sweat off her brow. Whose brilliant idea was it to have move-in day on the hottest day of August? It certainly wasn't ideal. Or fun. But the hardest part was over and Mary was _really_ looking forward to finding a meal. The on-campus dining halls weren't open yet, but a few of the food service establishments that were not owned by the university were. Mary had done extremely extensive research prior to arriving. Some might even call it obsessive research. But she had to make sure nothing went wrong. Every little detail about today had to be perfect, lest her mother find a fatal flaw and refuse to pay her tuition.

The pair elected not to take the stairs in an attempt to grant their legs some relief. They fought their way through a massive crowd in the hallway to get to the elevator. The hall was swarming with people. Families trying to squeeze their way past each other, siblings getting tangled up in each other in the process. Roommates introducing themselves to each other. Dads with sweaty brows and aching backs because their daughters are forcing them to carry all of the heavy boxes. Mary felt a small pang in her heart. She wished her father was here. He would be proud.

Mary pushed the thoughts of her father completely out of her mind. If she continued to dwell on them for much longer, she would breakdown right here in this hallway and that wasn't how she wanted introduce herself to all these people.

Unfortunately, the only thing larger than the group of people in the hallway was the mob of people in front of the elevator. She could barely see the doors of the elevator past all of their heads. Dejectedly, she turned to her Mom and said, "Stairs?"

"Stairs." Her mother sighed out in response. The stairwell, while only a few steps away from the elevator, was much less crowded. Mary held open the door for her mother before beginning to descend the staircase herself. She was living on the 5th floor of her building. She could only hope the elevator would be available for use _most_ days. Her legs would surely fall off before the end of the semester if she had to climb these multiple times a day, every day.

She was only halfway down the first flight when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She shifted herself all the way to the right, in order to avoid running into whoever it was. Her eyes were trained on the ground as she tried to focus on not tripping over her own feet and tumbling down the stairs. Just before she hit the landing, she felt a knock against her shoulder and her head shot up. She looked to her left to see who had bumped into her.

The eyes that she saw took her breath away. They were blue. A clear, pure blue that reminded her of….of something. Something she couldn't quite place. Maybe the ocean. She only managed to take her eyes away from his eyes to look at the rest of his face. He had stubble, a structured face, and slightly wild hair. She felt a tug in her stomach and an urge to drag a hand across his cheek. His eyes looked so familiar and a feeling of warmth exploded in her veins. She felt hypnotized. She stared at him, unblinking. Their eyes remained connected. His mouth was open just slightly, almost as though he was about to say something. Their connection was fully broken when a voice came calling from the landing below. "Francis!" The voice called. Their eye contact finally broke and Mary felt shaken. The boy turned his head in the direction of the voice but Mary couldn't stop staring at him. She couldn't move. She willed any part of her body to just move but the signals from her brain didn't seem to be reaching her body. Finally, the voice joined them on the landing. He stood next to the boy Mary had, in her head, dubbed ocean eyes. He quirked an eyebrow at him. "C'mon. I know she's very pretty but Dad's waiting for you in your room." The Voice said, smiling at Mary. Both of their eyes lingered on her for another moment before _Francis_ turned and continued walking up the stairs. The boy who had come up behind him gave her a wink before following him.

Mary stood on that ledge for another minute. Francis. There was _no _way. It had to be a coincidence. Just pure happenstance that she had only seen eyes that blue twice and they belonged to two people with the same name. Ocean eyes couldn't be _her _Francis. Though it would explain her urge to touch him and the warmth that spread through her once their eyes connected. She didn't have any more time to dwell on it though, her mother had already made it to the ground floor and was calling for her.

* * *

She couldn't get the encounter on the landing out of her head. The more she thought about it, and him, the more she became convinced that ocean eyes and her Francis were one and the same. Granted, she hadn't seen him since she was 8 years old but there was something about him, other than his eyes that screamed at her. Telling her he was her lost childhood love. The mere thought of that made her heart beat just a little bit quicker. She was quiet all through lunch with her Mom, chewing mindlessly on her salad. Her mind was still with ocean-eyes-maybe-her-Francis. "Mary? Sweetheart? Are you alright?" her mother asked her with a raised eyebrow. She nodded her head.

"Yeah. Just tired. Heavy lifting wore me out." There was no possible way she was telling her mother about the encounter on the stairs. She would freak out and everything would be ruined. So she kept her run in to herself. She stabbed another piece of lettuce, slightly violently, with her fork. "I hope the food in the dining halls is better than this otherwise I might get starved out." Mary joked, putting down her fork. The salad was bland and tasted like…well, a salad.

"Doubtful, darling. Learn to love tasteless, fatty food." Her mother joked back. Mary smiled. It's been quite a while since she and her mother could banter like this. Ever since Mary made her college choice, her mother had been cold and distant when she wasn't trying to convince her to choose somewhere, anywhere else to attend school. Mary knew to tread carefully. Her mother could go from happy and bubbly to rage monster in less than a minute. Mary wanted to keep the rage monster part of her mother very far away from today. She had enough on her metaphorical plate as it was.

Their lunch wrapped up and they began heading back to Mary's dorm. The closer they got to the building, the more nervous Mary got. Francis clearly lived in the same building as her, otherwise he would not have been climbing those stairs. Even if he wasn't _her _Francis, the idea still made her nervous. She fiddled with her thumbs the whole walk back, playing out all sorts of scenarios in her head, each one a little more strange than the last. Mary persuaded her Mother to wait in the crowd for the elevator. However irrational it might be, Mary felt like she was more likely to run into him again on the stairs and she couldn't chance another run in. Not with her Mother present.

The elevator was uncomfortable. Everybody was squeezed in right up against each other. Mary was squeezed in directly between her mother and an older gentleman, who smelled as though he hadn't ever heard of deodorant. Various floor buttons were pressed, nearly all of them in fact, and the elevator made a stop on each floor. When the elevator doors opened, it seemed that just as many people entered than had gotten off. Mary had to hold her breath each and every time the doors opened, hoping that Francis wouldn't enter. If he was indeed her Francis, she had to keep her Mother far, far away from him. The discomfort and nervousness didn't end until the elevator beeped at 5 and Mary pushed her way out. She took a deep breath in immediately after escaping. "If we had been in there any longer, I would have suffocated. Could you smell the b.o coming off the man standing next to me?" She asked her Mom, waving a hand in front of her nose as if wafting the smell away. Her mother only laughed in response.

As they walked toward the room, Mary noticed that the door was wide open. Her stomach sank and she felt down in her pocket for her key. It was still safely tucked into her back pocket. While her hand was feeling around in her pocket, it occurred to Mary that she had a roommate. One who hadn't yet arrived when Mary and her mother left for lunch. She bit her lip, half in nervousness and half in excitement. She had been anxious to meet her roommate ever since she got her housing assignment in July. She had imagined all sorts of scenarios. What if her roommate was insane? What if she was a serial killer? What if she wanted to take over her life? (Okay, watching the movie Roommate probably wasn't the best idea). She figured her roommate _probably _wasn't a convict of any sort but that didn't stop her from imagining the worst. With a steady stream of fears running through her mind, she approached her room with caution. She crossed the threshold tentatively. There were three people stationed on left side of the room. An older couple and a tall, thin girl with long light brown hair. Her footsteps gave her presence away immediately and all three people in the room turned to her. She gave a small smile and introduced herself. "Hi. I'm Mary, Mary Stuart." The girl stepped forward, smirking.

"Nice to meet you, Mary! I'm Kenna." Mary swallowed loudly. Kenna's smirk grew. "We're going to have a lot of fun this year." Kenna winked and went back to her parents. Mary was struck a bit dumbfounded. Kenna seemed….different. Unlike anyone Mary had ever met before. With a smile, Mary and her Mother retreated over to Mary's side of the room and began unpacking.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon was spent in a flurry of boxes, bedspreads, and small talk.

By 7pm, Mary had her entire side of the room decorated to her pleasure. It was simple but everything important to her was stuck to her walls. Pictures from graduation, prom, sports banquets, and family get togethers were all hanging on her wall between movie and book posters. If you took one look at her wall, you would know almost everything there was to know about her. Almost.

There was still one picture left. It was hidden in her purse so her mother wouldn't find it. It was an old photograph of her and Francis. It was taken the 4th of July before Mary left. They were standing next to each other, Mary's arms wrapped around Francis's torso. His face was puckered, in faux disgust because Mary had leaned in and kissed him straight on the cheek. Her father was in the background, holding a beer and laughing. The edges of the photograph were frayed and it was starting to yellow but it was Mary's favorite photograph. She would take it out on special occasions, like her birthday, and just take herself back to the moment it was taken. She would lay down on her bed and hug the photograph to her chest. Her eyes would flutter shut and she would be transported back in time. All of the sudden, she could feel the bright sunshine on her face and how warm Francis's cheek felt against her lips. She could hear Father's laughter. She would allow herself 10 minutes to live in her past before she would shake herself back to the present. She would take the photo off her chest and hide it away until the next special occasion.

Now that she was out of her Mom's house, that photo was staying in a place where she could see it. Whenever she wanted. She wouldn't be ashamed of it anymore.

Her eyes subconsciously found their way to her purse, which was hanging in her closet. It was still safely tucked away. It was starting to get late and Mary's Mother would be leaving shortly. Kenna's parents had already left and Kenna stood in front of her closet, hanging up clothes. Mary's Mom was smoothing out a wrinkle on her bedspread. She stood up and smiled sadly at Mary, who had just finished hanging all of her clothes. "Well, I think it's time I get going. Have an early plane to catch." She said, somewhat hollowly. Mary nodded, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She took a step closer to her Mother, who in turn raised a hand to Mary's cheek. She rested it there, dragging her thumb over Mary's cheekbone. "I love you so much, Mary. And I'm so proud of you." She paused, taking a deep breath. "Your Dad would be proud of you too. You've grown into such an amazing young woman. I know I gave you a lot of grief about choosing this college but I see it now. You'll do amazing here." Both Mary and her Mother had tears filling their eyes. Mary stepped closer once more and threw her arms around her Mother's shoulders.

"I love you, too Mom. I'm going to miss you much." Mary hadn't noticed but tears had begun to fall from her eyes. They rolled slowly down her cheek and onto her Mother's hair. Their embrace lasted a few more moments and then her Mother pulled away, wiping away her tears.

"Now, wipe those tears." She commanded lightly. She began gathering her things. "Make good decisions and if you ever have doubt in a choice you've made, you can always call me." Mary smiled. Her Mother finished collecting all of her personal belongings and made her way over to the door. With a sad smile, Mary said goodbye to her Mother. She couldn't help but stick her head out of the door watch her as she made her way to the elevator (where the crowd had finally cleared). When her Mom was finally out of sight, Mary retreated back into her room and shut the door. Immediately, Kenna came over to her, the smirk she always seemed to wear present.

"So, now that they're gone. How do you feel about a party?"

Mary's eyes widened.

Uh oh.


End file.
